Morning Rescue

About

Morning Rescue is a commercial for a Japanese drink created by the company House that appeared during the broadcast of the second episode of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. According to J-list the drink is a specially formulated drink with Ukon herbs and other ingredients^[1], though some fans have reported that it tastes exactly like Tang.

The commercial consists of a man in an orange jumpsuit repelling from the ceiling of an office building to rescue the workers by giving them bottles of Morning Rescue.

Origin

The commercial was first introduced to western audiences when the fansubbing group [gg] intentionally left the commercial in when they released their version of the episode.^[2] The commercial became very popular among the Puella Magi fandom and people began creating fanworks for the commercial. In the fanworks, usually one of the characters is endorsing the drink or is being awkwardly rescued by a man in an orange jump suit repelling from the ceiling. There are also a number of YouTube poop and MAD videos involving Morning Rescue.

Even though Morning Rescue is a minor meme, the commercial became so influential that websites, such as J-list, started having the product for sale due to popular demand.^[3] One blog stated that the owner of the website tweeted that the drink was selling very well. This same blog proposed the idea of whether fansub groups could be used positively by promoting businesses rather than harming them.^[4]

Popularity

The show Puella Magi Madoka Magica is an anime that deconstructs the magical girl genre. As a result, the show is very dark. The hilarity of the commercial may have caused it to become popular not only because of the popularity of the anime, but because of the stark contrast of the atmosphere between the two.

Even though Morning Rescue is a very minor meme, it is very closely associated with and recognized by people who are fans of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Jackie Chan?

September 11th, SuperChan's Jackie blog posted pictures of Jackie Chan filming commercials in LA.^[5] The commercials were uploaded to superchanblog's YouTube channel^[6] on October 3rd, 2011. They feature Jackie Chan dropping from the sky in a white jumpsuit to bring drinks to people in a fashion that closely resembles the Morning Rescue commercials. This is further highlighted in the first commercial featured in the video when Jackie Chan says, "Rescued Morning" as he saves a woman from cranberry juice.

External References